Help youths succeed
Gary Cain,
Last week, the Annie E. Casey Foundation released a study that showed what we in youth services have long believed: For young adults who were disadvantaged as adolescents, the strongest predictor of a high-quality job is a college degree. Also of great statistical importance is access to work-based learning, incorporating positive relationships with adults, while still in high school. We in Central Florida will do well to redouble our efforts to provide these experiences to disadvantaged youth if we want to prevent the host of issues that accompany poverty in adulthood.
Views of Christmas
Rudolph C. Cleare,
Christians make Christmas meaningful — manger scenes in public spaces do not. So I wish Christian preachers would stop stirring up passions with seasonal sermons decrying the “war on Christmas.” This great battle which troops of believers are being called up to wage is, to my way of thinking, a mistaken enterprise. The word and season of Christmas (the Feast of The Incarnation of The Lord in Catholic parlance) loses its worth when we demand that secularists and non-Christians who have no allegiance to a messianic tradition act as though they do. Are we not inducing them to bear false witness?
Interest-rate effects
Tom Dyer,
The Fed raised its key interest rate another quarter point last week. Average mortgage rates will soon climb to over 5% for the first time since 2009, which will push many prospective homebuyers back into the rental market. So it’s interesting to note that Orlando ranks seventh nationally in apartment, um, shrinkage. According to a study by RentCafe, the average size of a new rental apartment in Orlando has dropped 11% since 2008, to just over 1,000 square feet. In the same 10-year period, rents increased 46%, from under $1,000 per month to almost $1,400 per month. Buying a home sound better?
SpaceX puts safety first
Francisco Gonzalez,
SpaceX had to scrub launches this past week including during a visit by the vice president of the United States. It’s great to see that even an unmanned rocket program puts safety first, despite the disappointment some of us might feel after driving over to the Cape or setting our clocks to look out the window wanting to see a rocket launching from our backyards into outer space. It’s a lot less expensive to reschedule a flight than to have an accident because a launch was rushed. Kudos to SpaceX. Safety first.
Keep eyes on road
J. Matthew Knight,
Robert Dalton M.D., my father’s kindhearted interventional cardiologist, was biking to the Maitland SunRail station Monday morning when he was struck and killed near 17-92. While I don’t know the facts of this tragedy, I do know that over 50% of the drivers I see on my daily commute are staring down at their phone, only intermittently checking the street ahead. Enough! Your right to scroll through your Facebook feed ends the moment you share the road with my family. According to experts, checking a phone while driving is at least as deadly as driving drunk: They should carry the same penalties in Florida.
Help sought in shooting
Anna McPherson,
On Tuesday morning this week a 15-year-old student, Alejandro Vargas Martinez, on his way to A-rated Boone High School was killed in a drive-by shooting while walking to school. He was shot on a street bordering the former (and very charming) historic Kaley Elementary School and a block from the gourmet neighborhood ice-cream shop where flavors like “Cookie Monster” are popular with the kids from Boone and Blankner. The brazen shooting does not sit well with locals. Personal security-camera evidence may end up being one of the best leads in this investigation. It will be the help of concerned citizens that bring this murderer(s) to justice.